As Spring bloomed, so did our social activities. It was overwhelming at first considering we had been in pretty strict isolation since bringing Beau home last September. My social capacity needed retraining so it was a gradual adjustment. But, in hindsight, I’m really glad we made a point to reconnect with family and friends after a couple years of self-imposed distance.
April
^^ April was the month we finally opened up the ‘BeauGate’ and allowed family and close friends to hold Beau with a strict ‘no kissing rule’ which, thankfully, no one had an issue with. Charles’s parents came into town for a quick visit and were both soo soo soo happy to be able to hold their grandbaby.
^^ We ventured out to the Children’s Museum in DC to celebrate Camesha’s daughter’s birthday. While there, we got to meet Lmya’s daughter, Medina, another pandemic baby born 6 months before Beau.
^^ Celebrated my 35th birthday with a little hotel staycation put together by Charles. It was my first ever 24 hours away from Beau – I think I facetimed my Ma about 4 times to her great annoyance lol. I had my first couple glasses of wine, followed by a nice hot tub session that only lasted about 10 minutes because the wine and water heat made me feel super faint much to Charles’s concern… Like, I legit needed help getting out of the tub, that’s how much of a lightweight I was (and still am) after a whole year of prego and breastfeeding sobriety. It was my first night of uninterrupted sleep in forever (ah-mazing) followed by breakfast in bed. By the time checkout came around, I was ready to see my Beau and we ended the day at home with cake and cuddles.
^^ We celebrated Cambodian New Year with Ma for the first time since 2018. There’s a Cambodian Wat (temple) in Silver Spring, MD that we’ve gone to since I was little kid. The weather marked our first warm and breezy Spring day, it was perfect. I felt grateful to share this experience with Beau and Charles (their 1st times ever partaking in this holiday) and have them both get blessed by the monks.
Beau and his cousin, Jada.
Beau and my Dad.
^^ Last weekend in April, I hosted a belated birthday picnic with our family from both sides. But honestly, nobody really cared about me since it was everyone’s first time seeing Beau in person – he was basically the star of the party. Overall, I remember watching everyone together and feeling really grateful that all of our immediate family got through these past couple of *peak* pandemic years without any major Covid sickness or loss. It’s something I don’t take for granted.
May
^^ Facetime sessions with my Grams/ Beau’s Great Gramma.
^^ Proof that opposites attract… Charles runs hot and I run cold and the Spring weather transition had us at temperature odds so this is what our bed looked like for most of the season.
^^ Celebrated my first Mother’s Day with a pedicure and brunch – Official Recap Here.
^^ Beau’s hand/eye coordination showed up fierce as we transitioned to solids around 6 months. This boy was swatting puree filled spoons out of our hands whenever we tried to feed him. So after 2 months of failing to get him to eat much of anything, I decided to give baby led weaning a try and it was a surprisingly great success. Come to find out my son is independent and just wanted to hold the food and spoons and feed himself… A Virgo to the fullest lol.
^^ Memorial Day weekend marked our first pool day of the year and my first time letting the postpartum body rolls out to play. Beau didn’t have much of a reaction to the water this day but he also didn’t cry which I thought was a good sign overall. With our community pool located right across the street, we found ourselves at the pool every weekend in June and throughout summer. Beau’s middle name Kongkea means “big water” in Cambodian and he eventually took to his namesake with time, laughing, splashing and kicking as he got used to the aquatic experience.
June
^^ My first (no Beau tagalong) friend date at Ching Ching Cha with my girl, Peach. By far one of my favorite tea houses in D.C. It’s the only one I’m aware of providing an authentic Chinese tea experience while majority of the other tea spots in D.C. provide English afternoon tea experiences.
^^^ Father’s Day hang with the fam. A relaxing afternoon spent lounging around poolside with some pizza and snacks on the side.
^^ And a surprise cake from my Ma for Charles to celebrate the day. <3
^^ Our very first ‘get dressed up/parents night out” to attend Charles’s cousin’s wedding in the 757. Backstory leading up to this evening begins with me trying on all my size 8/10 dresses a month before the event and realizing nothing fit… So after Charles encouraged me to just buy a new dress to fit my current postpartum body (instead of going on strict diet to try and fit an old dress), I ordered 2 sets of dresses online in size 12 and 14, crossing my fingers that something would fit. And one did – this size 14 dress from Showpo. It took a day or two to come to terms that I was (still am) a size 14… The dress is a different style than I’m used to with the cut showing off more cleavage than I normally do but, on the flip side, I genuinely felt comfortable and pretty for the first time a long time at the wedding.
We also went to the beach for the first time with Beau during this 4 day weekend trip but I took way too many photos and will share that recap separately (at some point – ha!).
^^ 1st Covid vaccine shot for Beau a week after the FDA approved its rollout. We ended up choosing to go with Pfizer’s 3 shot schedule. While a longer process (we started in June and he got his last dosage in August), the dosage was smaller with less side effects per case study results. With his existing health conditions and our first plane trip to Maine coming up in July, it was important for us to try and get at least 2 shots out of the 3 in his system to help boost his immune system for travel.
Not pictured but June also marked the start of me weaning off exclusively pumping my breastmilk for Beau and integrating formula every other bottle – the beginning of me getting my body autonomy back which was personally very exciting.
And so concludes Q2 of 2022. A post that was technically supposed to go up almost 2 months ago but I’m flowing this year and not overthinking timelines lol.
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As this year comes to a close, my goal is to simply finish my Q3 and Q4 recaps this month and set aside time to reflect on my time usage and priorities going into the new year.
Until next post.
xo, Setarra
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